Prospect High School speech students win national reputation

Editor's note: This article has been corrected to properly identify Ben Marshall.

Prospect High School has a national reputation in the world of marching bands, but increasingly the Knights are building another legacy - in speech and debate.

Last month, the school placed among the top 20 teams in the nation based on performances by five students who finished in the top six of their events. In all, the school qualified 11 team members for the National Speech & Debate Tournament in Salt Lake City.

Prospect was the only school in the state with a student in the final round.

"The highest any student from Prospect has previously finished was 10th," says Associate Principal Scott McDermott, who helps to coach the team. "To put this in perspective, there were 4,200 competitors at the tournament between speech and debate, representing 1,000 schools."

All this comes in the wake of Prospect capturing first place as a team at the Illinois High School Association's state speech tournament in February, after team members took first place in four separate events.

Among those were sophomore Molly McDermott and her partner, junior Ben Marshall, both of Arlington Heights, who won the humorous duet event. They took their same piece to nationals, where they ultimately advanced to the finals in duo interpretation and placed third.

"We were the only ones to do a humorous piece in the finals, and I think that's why we stood out," Marshall says.

Together, they performed a 10-minute scene from a play called "Perfect" by Rachel Christopher. In it, they play a couple on their wedding day reflecting back to a pact they made as 5-year-olds that if they didn't marry by the time they turned 25 they would marry one another.

"It's really funny, but we have to go from laughing to crying in a moment," says Molly McDermott, who is the daughter of the associate principal.

Another national medalist was Veronica Boratyn of Arlington Heights, who graduated in May from Prospect. She placed fourth in informative speaking behind her teammate, senior Rhegan Graham, who placed third.

Boratyn used her 10 minutes on the national stage to inform her audience about swearing, of all things, including its history, benefits and drawbacks. The improbable topic captured the interest of the audience and, at one point, people stood up clapping.

"That was a moment I never would have expected when I was a freshman," says Boratyn, who will be attending Yale University in the fall.

She explains that as the daughter of Polish immigrants, she joined the speech team to help improve her command of the language and ability to speak in front of others. She remembers that as a freshman competing in her first tournament, she burst into tears.

"I think the hallmark of Prospect's program is that you're constantly improving," Boratyn adds. "The piece you start with in the fall is going to feel completely different in the spring. That's how much we analyze and tweak it."

Rounding out Prospect's national team were John Zach, Kamila Cwanek, Kit Fitzgerald Garrett Strother, Lillian Hermes and Andrew Pittman.

Scott McDermott says speech has become more relevant than ever in this day and age when people text and email to communicate, and are so wrapped up in their devices.

"I've said for years that the single most important skill we can teach our kids is to communicate," says Scott McDermott, who coached speech for 16 years at Glenbrook South High School before coming to Prospect.

"It empowers them to become more engaged and impactful in the world they live in, and it opens up all doors," he adds.

"Colleges and employers are craving people who possess this one critical skill. And based on the number of kids who participate in speech, it's quite obvious that it's valued here at Prospect."

•Video of Ben and Molly is at 6:11:40 at http://livestream.com/Nats16Stream1/FinalsDay1, of Rhegan is at 6:40:13 at http://livestream.com/Nats16Stream1/FinalsDay2, and of Veronica at 7:06:18 in the same feed.